Time Trial
by echotoast
Summary: Ruby's been kidnapped, and her captors have announced a time limit: Yang, Blake, Weiss and everyone else back at Beacon all have precisely five days to find and save her, or it's lights out for their little Rose.
1. Chapter 1

This had been going on for an hour now.

Time after time Ruby struck out at the girl, and time after time she dodged it with ease. Yang had warned her about a tough opponent, but she had never imagined it being _this_ hard.

Ruby was breathing heavily by this point – as legendary as her stamina was, an hour was an hour, and she was wearing out fast. Her opponent - she remembered Roman called her Neo, once? - seemed no worse for wear, but Ruby was pretty sure she'd slowed down as well. She could at least cling to that hope, and the fact that she was still relatively unharmed. Ruby was suffering some minor injuries, but she'd avoided the worst of Neo's attacks.

But still...

This was supposed to be an easy mission. A snap, Yang had said.

The idea behind it was simple : slip into the warehouse Roman had been spotted in, get some info, slip back out and go get an ice cream or some other corny, unnecessary celebration she'd come up with to celebrate their 'victory'.

'_Hopefully it's going better for everyone else.'_ Ruby thought to herself, trying to stay optimistic. She herself had been spotted sneaking around by the girl she was currently fighting, and it'd be safe to say things weren't going too well.

Maybe now would be a good time to make a break for it.

Wincing as the Neo took another swing at her with the business end of the parasol, Ruby slid to the side and evaded the brunt of the hit. The sting in her shoulder let her know she hadn't avoided all of it, though.

She quickly activated her semblance and dashed for the nearest door, nearly slamming into it in her haste to get it opened. When she tried the handle, it was locked. Ruby bit her lip and looked around for some other exit – maybe that window could work? But how would she get to it? Maybe if she used a crate or something as her vantage point she could jump?

Before she got the chance to try it, she felt the rushing of air and quickly jerked out of the way of another strike from the girl.

"Oh, right…don't take your eyes off your opponent, Ruby…" She muttered to herself, once she had retreated a safe distance from the tricolored menace.

The opponent in question grinned widely and held a finger out as if to scold Ruby, wagging it back and forth. Ruby frowned at this, and Neo reached into a pocket to pull out a key - presumably one that would open the door – and hold it up for her to see before putting it back.

"Is that – is that a challenge?" Ruby asked, only unsure for a moment. Of course it was a challenge, what else would it be?

Confirming her thoughts, Neo nodded, keeping her ever-present grin in place.

For some reason Ruby felt the need to nod back, before she rushed her with Crescent Rose for what seemed like the hundredth time that night. As usual, the girl slipped out of the way of her scythe's wide arc with ease, even going as far as to feign a yawn before retaliating with her parasol.

Frustrated, Ruby tried her spin attack, holding Crescent Rose out and spinning around wildly like a top in hopes that her weapon would hit _something._

Needless to say, it failed. Neo had once again avoided it, and this time was waiting and ready to slam Ruby upside the head with her parasol. She let out a brief cry before jumping back, trying to flee the follow-up hit.

It clipped her arm, and she grated her teeth but kept moving out of the way until she felt she was a safe distance from her enemy once again.

Huffing and trying to regain her breath, Ruby raised her good arm to wipe the area under her nose clean of blood and try to examine her situation again.

….There was no way she was getting that key.

Despite all her best attempts, the tricolored girl before Ruby remained unscathed. There was an eerie sort of perfection about her – down to the way her hair fell to the way she'd tilted her head just slightly and grinned like the Cheshire cat. Before Ruby could determine what it was that created this effect, she grew dizzy, and dropped to the floor.

The exhaustion must've finally caught up to her, that or the blow to the head did.

Neo walked towards her at a leisurely pace, and the last thing Ruby saw before she blacked out was her, raising a lone finger to her lips, still grinning as the silence she requested fell over the room.

* * *

><p>"So what do we do now? Shoot her?" Roman asked incredulously, after Neo had dragged her capture into the more formal base of operations.<p>

Her boss was the first to question Neo's bringing her there, and she tried to sign her response, but he held up a hand to stop her. "Look, if I told you once I've told you too many times, I'm not bothering to learn your finger gibberish. Write it down or something."

Neo scowled at the man and huffed loudly, crossing her arms. Fine, he could figure it out himself.

Evidently he wasn't in the mood to play charades, so Roman raised his cane to just off the girl – Neo was pretty sure she'd heard one of the other ones call her Ruby? – and be done with it.

Well, that wouldn't do.

She stepped in the way and shook her head disapprovingly. She had things to do with this one before anyone killed her – could Roman seriously not see a good piece of blackmail when he saw one?

From what Neo knew, this girl was the leader, and apparently a prodigy to boot, if she got accepted into Beacon so early. They could easily use her as a bargaining chip, or just plain hold her hostage for the sake of intimidation.

Roman grumbled something under his breath and skulked out of the room. "Cinder!" He called, like a child tattling on their sibling, "Get her to move out of the way, or see what she wants or whatever, would you?"

After a moment, Cinder sauntered into the room – Cinder never walked places, Neo had decided, Cinder was always swaying like she was on some kind of runway, so she was always sauntering – with Emerald and Mercury in tow.

She eyed Ruby on the floor distastefully, and then looked to Neo. "When did you get a hostage?"

'_Just now.'_ She signed quickly. Everyone looked to Mercury – he was the only one who'd bothered to learn sign language. Unfortunately he was also one of Neo's least favorite people there, but beggars can't be choosers, can they?

He heaved a deep sigh, mumbling something about not getting paid enough to be a portable translator. "Just now, apparently."

Cinder nodded. "Obviously. What do you want with the kid if you're not killing her?" She asked dubiously. "I doubt she'd be very willing to help our cause."

Neo shook her head and faced Mercury again to sign a response. '_You idiots really need to learn the value of a hostage. We can use her to scare them. Or for blackmail.'_ She had to slow down a few times to make sure Mercury got it all, but eventually he did, nodding and making his usual self-satisfied smirk.

"She's clever. We have a hostage now, and plenty of ways to exploit that fact. They'll be willing to do a lot to retrieve her, not to mention her team will probably break down while she's away – it's a good plan." He said decidedly.

While Neo was irritated that he hadn't bothered to translate exactly – he never did – she was still pleased with herself, and allowed herself a little gloating as Cinder smiled and silently approved of the plan.

"That sounds…perfect." The woman said decidedly. " Since Neo captured her, she's in charge of handling the brat, and, Emerald, Mercury – you two help her announce her capture. I'll be back upstairs if there are no more…" - she glared at Roman – "…disturbances."

Emerald nodded, though she cast a scathing look at Neo shortly after. Neo tried not to laugh. Emerald always wanted to be Cinder's favorite, so seeing someone else get praise must've pissed her off a little.

Mercury seemed indifferent to the assignment, and Roman made some sarcastic remark about 'no respect' before skulking off to boss the White Fang grunts around some more.

Well, they'd better get started.

Neo glanced down at the captive and smiled. She could have some fun with her job.

* * *

><p>A grave silence had settled over the remainders of team RWBY back on their way to the dorm at Beacon.<p>

Weiss was the only one to attempt to break it. "…Look, we had to leave if we were going to report this to actual hunters and huntresses, and you know it. Ruby will be fine, right?"

Yang refused to acknowledge Weiss' statement, but her face soured a little at the mention of what had just happened.

They left. Without. Her sister.

Weiss had convinced Blake that it was necessary, and in turn Blake had talked down her partner until, suddenly, all three of them were heading back to Beacon with no leader and no important information to show for their mission, either.

But most importantly, no leader.

"We waited two hours. If she could've gotten out on her own, she would've. So going and getting more experienced people to help her out is the best plan – even if it feels shitty." Blake reasoned, nudging Yang a bit at the last statement. "The professors will know what to do."

"They'd better." She retorted harshly. Blake and Weiss both took a step back, and silence settled over the group again.

They walked down towards their dorm room first to grab some things, but Blake spotted something in front of the door and rushed past her teammates to inspect it.

Crescent Rose sat there, folded up, and on top of it was a small memory chip. Blake grabbed it and clipped it into her scroll quickly, as Yang and Weiss jogged over to investigate as well. She held it out so they could see too just as a video had started to display on the screen, and they all watched with interest.

It displayed an image of Ruby, blindfolded and stirring around as if just waking up. A tricolored girl they recognized as Neo walked in and stood next to her, grinning sickly sweet. She held up a card, and whoever was filming zoomed in on it dramatically. It read, "Missing something?" with alternating colors, the same three Neo was wearing. The i's had been dotted with hearts and Neo looked pretty smug about holding it up.

"Stop dicking around and get to the point." A male voice from behind the camera came in, and a hand covered the lens before he went on. "You've got five days. I think you can figure out what happens if you don't get here before then. We'll be leaving little updates on the brat every now and then, for however long it takes you to do anything. " He said in a monotonous voice, before a girl chimed in.

"This'll teach you to nose around in our business, hopefully. Talk to you later!" The hand was removed from the lens and Ruby was back in view, now sitting up and trying to look around.

"…Where..?"

The video went out with a resounding 'click'.

If at all possible, Weiss paled, and Blake grimaced. Yang just stared at the scroll like she didn't know what to feel.

There was yet another brief, stunned silence. Yang broke it, gripping the scroll like she was tempted to rip it in half.

"Get the teachers. Right now."

There was something about the strained tone in her voice that made Blake and Weiss feel that stalling or arguing would be a mistake. They rushed off to locate a teacher.

-_**Day one: hour zero** -_

_-_**_Time remaining: 120 hours_ -**

* * *

><p><strong>I love a dramatic chapter ending, don't you? So yeah, uh, if you notice the little hour count under the end of the chapter, I'll be doing that every time I line break from now on, so, look out for that! It'll be running for the rest of the story, and it'll help you know how time is passing and such when I switch perspectives. I don't have an update schedule, but I am going to continue this as soon as possible 'cause it'd be mean to just leave you at this for like a month. You can probably expect an update around Friday or Saturday. If you've got any criticism or comments I'd love to hear it, 'cause I'm not too sure how well I'm writing some of these characters in, heheh. Thank you for reading this!<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

-**Day one: Hour one –**

**-Time remaining: 119 hours –**

"There, we delivered the video. I still don't see why you didn't have us make any demands in it, though." Mercury was reporting back to Neo, who just nodded.

'_Don't worry. I made a plan.'_ She signed, and he just shrugged.

"Whatever you don't say, Neo."

He seemed slightly proud of himself for that not-so-sly dig at her, and she just deadpanned at him until he left the room.

Whatever, she had more important things to do. The timer had started when she had Mercury and Emerald drop off the scythe and that video, so she didn't have much time to waste vacating the area.

As if the universe had read her mind, Roman chose this time to check in. "Hey, you coming or what? We don't have all day."

She smiled and nodded, walking towards the doorway slowly, deliberately. Roman groaned and headed back where he was needed, convinced she was just trying to be a smart aleck.

He never noticed the notecard she'd dropped behind herself.

-**Day one: hour one** -

-**Time remaining: 119 hours -**

"What the hell do you mean we 'can't go on the mission'_?!"_ Yang demanded, slamming her hands down on the desk.

To his credit, Ozpin did a good job appearing unfazed by the angry blonde. He explained again what he had told them when they asked what they should do first. "I understand that you feel it's your duty to look for her, but I just _can't let_ a bunch of first year students charge into a hostage situation. And for that I'm deeply sorry." He took a long sip of his coffee. "I'll send a team of upperclassmen to scout, and if they fail to come back with anything, a fully trained hunter will be sent to retrieve Ruby. That is all I can do for you."

He stood from his desk and motioned to Glynda to do something, probably dismiss the remainder of team RWBY, while he dug around some files.

While Weiss focused on keeping Yang from breaking something, Blake took on a thoughtful expression. "Professor, before we go, I was just curious – what team do you think you'll be sending to scout?"

"Hmm…team CFVY has interacted with your team more than any of the other upperclassmen, so they should be good match. They'll also be instructed to keep you updated on the mission, don't worry. Is that all?" He replied idly, still trying to find some file or other.

Blake nodded. "..Yes, that was all. Thank you."

Glynda was oddly silent as she led them out of the office and back to the hall, as was everyone else, but she spoke up just as they were sent down the elevator. "Oh, and, you three – I'll see you in class tomorrow. Try not to be late." The doors slid closed.

"Pffft. As if anyone would dare be late to her class. They'd get detention until the next ice age rolled around." Weiss scoffed, then looked over to the other occupants of the elevator and noted their expressions.

Yang seemed to be too busy brooding to appreciate the slight humor, and Blake was once again thinking of something else. "Now that you mention it…that is weird." She muttered.

Weiss shrugged. "Not really, she's a pretty strict teacher. Though I was exaggerating for comedic effe-"

"No, not that." Blake cut in. "She never reminds people not to be late, we all _know_ that's a terrible idea. Maybe she wants us to come in early so she can say something?" she mused.

"Or maybe she wants us to cut and go look for Ruby!" Yang said suddenly, startling the other two in the elevator.

Weiss frowned. "I don't think a professor would encourage that, much less professor Goodwitch. Maybe she _will_ have something to say to us before class though. "

"I don't care!" The blonde was shouting again, "We need to find Ruby as soon as possible and since we were the last ones at the warehouse, we're the most familiar with it! They left their video at _our_ door, didn't they?!"

"You need to calm down." Blake said pointedly.

"Well you need to f-" The elevator door slid open, and their argument was abruptly brought to a close as they saw curious students in the hall.

They couldn't argue here, they'd have to carry on some other place. Yang stalked off in front of her teammates, who exchanged helpless shrugs.

On the way back to their dorm room, team JNPR intercepted them.

"Heeey guys!" Nora was chipper as always, rushing up along to Yang's side, since the blonde was usually most willing to put up with her shenanigans.

"Hi."

Nora frowned. That was not the response she typically got. The rest of her team was just catching up as she darted around the three members of team RWBY. "You look sad are you sad why are you sad where's Ruby have you guys seen any-"

"Nora. One question at a time." Ren interrupted, pulling her out of her fervor.

She sucked in a deep breath, and exhaled. "..Are you guys okay?" Rather than her usual quick, spitfire questions, Nora asked this one more gently - it had become more obvious to her that the three were not in good moods.

Pyrrha, Ren and Jaune had made their way over to Nora's side by this point, and were all looking at the other three expectantly.

Pyrrha bit her lip upon seeing their expressions. "It wouldn't have anything to do with Ruby's absence, would it?" She asked tentatively.

Once again, Blake and Weiss exchanged glances. They'd been expecting Yang to answer the question, but she was just staring over at them. Blake took that as her cue to explain instead.

"Unfortunately, it has everything to do with that. Here." Blake pulled her scroll out and opened up the saved file of the video and showed it to them.

"Whaaaaaaat?!" Nora was the first to react as the video closed out, grabbing onto the scroll and hitting play again. "Ruby is – what?!"

Ren was watching the video again carefully, like he was trying to figure something out.

"But- but – Ruby's unstoppable!" Jaune sputtered, before Pyrrha brushed past him to stand at the head of their group.

"Can we do anything to help?" She directed the question at Yang.

"Ozpin said first years couldn't go on the mission. They're sending team CFVY instead." She muttered lamely.

Nobody said anything for a moment, but a determined expression came over Nora's face and she hastily whispered some things to Ren. He hummed for a moment after she finished, as if deciding something, before he nodded his agreement to whatever she'd said.

Nora fist pumped. "Alright everyone! You're all in crappy moods and that's a no – go, so may I be the first to propose…" She paused for a second like there was some kind of imaginary drum roll, "A sleepover! Complete with doing stupid things with bottles, closets, and our hair! And I've got _rom coms_!" She crossed her arms, confident that her suggestion would go over well.

It did not.

"Nora, someone is _missing_ and your response is to throw a party? I thought you'd be more sympathetic than that." Weiss commented disdainfully. Blake nodded.

"That is a weird thing to suggest after we tell you we're all not in the best of spirits.."

Sighing, the redhead dragged Weiss and Blake away from Yang, and proceeded to talk loud enough for everyone to hear her anyways. "Look you guys, you're all really sad but Ozpin told you there's nothing you can do about it! Team CFVY is on the job, and you guys aren't, and I get that you're all upset about it, but you'll just be sitting around your dorm feeling sorry for yourselves all night if you keep this up!"

She crossed her arms again, this time taking on a stern tone. "Soooo, as your friend, it's my job to make sure you don't have such a terrible night! And besides, you've seen team CFVY work – Ruby will be back by tomorrow, I'm sure of it!"

Yang made eye contact with Nora. "You're _sure_, sure?"

Nora nodded enthusiastically. "Absolutely!"

"Besides," Pyrrha cut in, "Even if they don't find her by tomorrow, we will know where she is by the time day five rolls around. That's for certain."

Yang let out a long, prolonged sigh, before finally responding. "Good, then we'll have it when she gets back."

She turned around and made her way back to the dorm to think.

-**Day one: Hour four –**

**-Time remaining: 116 hours –**

Ruby sat up once again, with more urgency.

Last time she'd only been up for a few minutes, and she'd caught what seemed to be the end of some sort of ransom. She was sure it was hers.

But this time, there wasn't any talking. She could only hear the dull thuds created by things slamming into metal, leaving a slight echo.

Putting two and two together, she came to the conclusion that she was in an airship.

They were moving their hideout.

She sucked in a deep breath and tried to think of a way out.

Let's see…she was bound and blindfolded…but not gagged. Maybe she could try and...chew the rope off?

The more she thought about it, the dumber it seemed, but she tried it anyways, steeling herself before trying to tug at the rope around her wrists with her teeth. On her first attempt it tightened, and Ruby let out a short whine, high pitched and sounding more like her dog than a distressed teenager, before she decided to try again.

It hurt her wrists and tasted terrible, but after about fifteen minutes she was sure she was getting somewhere.

Ten minutes later, she let out a short, victorious 'yes!' and pushed her blindfold up. Next stop a way out of this –

Oh, crap. She heard a door opening, and hurriedly pushed her blindfold back down, putting her arms behind her back and tucking the chewed-off rope under there too as she lay down.

"Ugh, guard duty is so boring. Look at her, she isn't even conscious. We really gotta spend four hours in here?"

"Yup."

Oh _come on._

Ruby silently cursed her luck and resigned herself to a lot of waiting.

**-Day one: Hour five –**

**-Time remaining: 115 hours -**

Bumbleby pulled into a stop, and Yang hopped off her motorcycle quickly, only barely remembering to put the goggles back down on it before taking off on foot.

She had a warehouse to investigate.

Just as she'd steeled herself to bust a door open for entry, it was kicked open by someone else: the leader of team CFVY, on her way out. The rest of the team followed her.

Coco stopped in front of Yang. "What, a first year wanted to get in on the action? Sorry kid, but we already cleared the place. It's empty. " Velvet hurried up to Coco and whispered a few things, turning her around to speak quietly. Yatsuhashi stood tall behind the two girls, easily discouraging the blonde from even attempting to listen in on them.

Yang saw a few hand gestures and more whispering before Coco turned back around.

"Alright, alright, I don't wanna be _that _asshole that doesn't let you investigate a personal thing. 'S just not my style." Coco rummaged around in her bag for something, pulling out a few index cards and handing them to Yang. "Here, we didn't find your sister, but we did find these. You can have a look before my team and I go and investigate them ourselves."

Flipping the cards over, Yang found familiar tricolored writing.

"_Hey idiots. Since I don't feel like waiting for you to stumble into our new place by sheer dumb luck, I'll give you a hint: The mammoth Grimm smell teeeerrriiible...but the plant life smells worse. _

…" Rather than writing in that space, there was a small picture of large flowers with little stink lines coming up from them surrounding a lever.

"_See you soon!"_

She frowned at the cards before handing them back to Coco. "So, that means _what _exactly? Is it a trap?"

Velvet answered this one, shrugging. "That's why we're going to investigate and not you guys. Then if we take too long, one of the hunters at the school will go. You and your team can collect evidence _here_, sure, but anywhere over there? That's classified. And dangerous. "

The team was already starting to move off, Fox trailing behind Yatsuhashi and both of them behind Coco. Velvet addressed Yang one last time before running off to catch up with her team. "But hey, chin up, we'll bring her back in no time!"

"Probably.." Fox muttered under his breath cynically.

And with this, team CFVY was off.

Yang glanced back at the warehouse. Well, they _did_ say she could investigate here, just not over there…yet. After a moment's thoughts, she rushed back over to her motorcycle and made her way off to Beacon's library.

She had some research to do.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And here's chapter two! So...what kind of flowers smell nasty? All lame plot devices and hints aside, I'll have a little Q and A thing set up down in the AN from now on (for now anyways) , so uh, let's get to that! First off thanks for reviewing, it was really nice of you guys! Back to the point.<br>**

**To answer UNknown123 and theundeadkings: I'll try and update this story as frequently as possible, but the closest thing to an update schedule I can put together is Wednesdays and Friday/Saturdays, because I have the most free time on those days, so uh, yeah, you can probably expect most chapters then.  
><strong>

**To answer the Guest: Yeah, I know, not the most original plotline, character has been kidnapped, other people go save her. It's been done before. If it helps, this was just supposed to be a little writing practice, before I decided to post it. Ruby's not going to totally give up or anything, and I'll try to not pull a _total_ distressed damsel story on you guys, but, I'm inevitably already using a lot of cliches in it, so yeah, I'll try to improve on that front. **

**To respond to Sleep Arypsure, JohnDoe, and rwbybomb : Thank you! I'll try my best to keep it interesting.**

**So that about wraps up my AN. This way of answering things seems a bit easier than PMing everybody, but, if anyone doesn't like this chunk of bold text at the end, tell me, and I'll try my best to cut back on it, cause uh, sheesh, this _is_ a bit long! Anyway, if anyone's got any comments or criticisms, or noticed that I messed up my grammar somewhere, tell me! I'll try to fix it up for you if it's one of the latter two. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

-**Day one: Hour eight –**

**-Time remaining: 112 hours –**

Ruby all but cheered in her celebration as soon as she heard the glorious, glorious sound of receding footsteps. The guards were leaving, so all she had to do was get out of the room before the next shift came in. She could get out of this storage room, find wherever they were keeping her sweetheart, and blast her way out before the night was done. Ruby gazed affectionately off into space just thinking about her weapon. Hopefully Crescent Rose was in good condition.

Brushing those thoughts aside, Ruby set about untying her ankles before standing up, stretching a bit in hopes of getting rid of at least a few of the kinks in her back from lying on the floor for an undetermined amount of time. She allowed the rope that had previously been around her wrists and the blindfold to drop to the floor.

There didn't seem to be a lot of obvious exits to the expansive room, she noted. One exit was the door her guards had presumably left through, but that would lead into some other place with more people in it, so she opted against trying it.

Another exit was the huge steel hatch, but, unless she planned on skydiving, Ruby felt like trying to open that one would be a poor decision too. That left her with… another door, and an air vent by the first door.

Ruby opted to try the second door first, ducking into the room it led to and closing it as quietly as possible. Dim, flickering fluorescent lighting and a whole lot of the color grey greeted her.

Sheesh, this looked like the set of a black and white detective movie or something. The caped girl deftly picked her way around discarded paperwork and made her way up to the desk in the center of the room.

Amidst the clutter on the desk, there were three things that stood out to her: Notes, scrawled onto the paper in messy cursive that Ruby couldn't possibly decipher, a key, for what she wasn't sure, and lastly, a scroll.

Risking another cautious glance around the room – she hadn't seen anyone in here when she entered but she had to be absolutely _sure_ she was alone – Ruby eyed the objects on the desk and wasted little time in pocketing the key and attempting to read the notes anyways. As she had predicted, they were unreadable for her, but she still thought she saw her name on there once or twice, as well some more important words like 'weapon', 'safekeeping', 'project' and – that word was either 'trade' or 'jade'. Probably the latter, but the fact that she was confused in the first place spoke numbers about the accuracy of her reading. She sighed and put them back where they were, before swiping the scroll off the desk and opening up an emergency call.

Ruby quickly put in Yang's number, fidgeting around anxiously as she awaited a response.

"Hey! You've reached –"

"Really?! An answering machine?!" She hissed, trying her best to keep the volume down. "Ugh, of all the times for her to not...ugh…." Ruby hung up before it got the chance to finish and decided to try again.

Hmm….she couldn't call Weiss, since there was something about her scroll blocking unregistered numbers…. Maybe Blake would answer?

It took her a second to remember the number, but eventually Ruby managed to put that one in and call her up. There was a terse silence. "Please don't be another answering machine please don't be another answering machine please don't be another –"

"Who is calling me at – it's two in the morning, who –" Blake's voice came through the device, sounding groggy and disoriented.

It was the best sound Ruby had ever heard. "Blake! Okay okay so I found this and I need you guys to, uh, I need you to…umm…"

"Ruby?!" She heard some jostling on the other side of the call, as Blake presumably sat up in bed.

Even though she knew Blake wasn't able to see her, Ruby nodded. "Yeah, I'm uh, I'm calling from – I don't know where I am, I think it's an airship? I'm also pretty sure we landed a while ago, but not _where,_ so, um.."

"Look, I need you to listen for a minute. Are there any windows you can see?" Blake asked, her tone even. It did a little to soothe Ruby's nerves, but not a whole lot. She could hear some clamoring in the background of the call.

Ruby took another look around the room, but it was just as windowless as before. "No, no windows."

She thought she heard Blake curse under her breath. "Okay, that's okay, just – hey! Give that b–"

"_Ruby Rose_, what in the fresh frozen _hell _are you doing?!" Weiss' voice was coming through the scroll now, and Ruby flinched at the harshness.

"C-calling for help?" She replied uncertainly.

Weiss sighed deeply over the scroll, and Ruby could tell she was doing that thing where she pinched the bridge of her nose and – "Ruby, just, did it ever occur to you that there'll be, oh I don't know, _history of this phone call_?"

"Oh."

"And also, are you staying in one place doing this? You'll get caught for sure if you don't at least _try_ to be sneaky." Somehow even in a crisis Weiss managed to make it sound like she was scolding Ruby.

She shuddered at the mention of getting caught and moved to crack the door open to peek through into the spacious cabin she had been held in previously. "Sorry, sorry I'll see if I can – oh, sh-"

Standing before her was not one, but two people. She recognized Neo, grinning sweetly over at her, and a taller woman with gleaming orange eyes – Ruby froze, then jolted at the realization that she'd seen her before, at Beacon.

The first time, she introduced herself as an exchange student, Cinder….and the second…. "The intruder at the dance…" She mumbled, taking a defensive step back as Cinder moved forward.

"My my, what a naughty girl," She purred, reaching over to grab hold of Ruby's shoulder and direct her line of sight, "Awfully rude of you, giving our guards the slip like that."

"I – I…" Ruby stammered, looking around frantically for an escape. She didn't have Crescent Rose, and she was smart enough to know when she was outmatched. But where could she run?

The scroll, still in her hand, was muffled, but she could still hear Weiss, and shortly afterwards, Blake, on the other end. "..Ruby?! What happened – tell us what…_Ruby_!"

Cinder removed the scroll from Ruby's grip and unceremoniously hung up, before tossing it to the side. It clattered a bit more loudly than expected, in the cavernous space of the ship's storage cabin.

She seemed satisfied, and went back to evaluating Ruby. Neo just watched with interest, occasionally fiddling with her parasol, sheathing and unsheathing the blade hidden in the handle. "Where did the blindfold go? Did you take it off?" She clicked her tongue a few times. "How inconvenient. Maybe we ought to just blind you instead, save some fabric."

Ruby forced herself to take a step backwards, then another. She only managed one more before she backed into the door she'd just come out of. Ruby gazed up at Cinder, and then to Neo standing behind her idly. She swallowed nervously as they advanced.

-**Same Hour-**

Blake watched with interest as Weiss snatched up the scroll and wrote down the number, glancing back and forth from the paper incessantly to make sure it was completely accurate, before handing the scroll to Blake and running about the room putting her outfit on, ranting as she did so.

"I cannot _believe_ she didn't consider –" Weiss yanked a drawer open and pulled her jacket and skirt out, "- that there might be evidence of the call! Of all the _irresponsible, useless _ things she has ever done –" She moved into the bathroom and began changing out of her nightgown into her day clothes, "-_this_ has got to be the most ridiculous, imprudent, stupid mess she has ever gotten herself into! She's so irresponsible, too! She's just such a – argh, she's such a _kid_!" She huffed and threw the bathroom door open, adjusting her jacket.

"Where are you off to?" Blake asked cautiously, still trying to figure out the white-themed girl's angle.

Weiss huffed and crossed her arms. "To find her, of course." She said it bluntly, like suggesting she was going to do anything else was ridiculous. "Are you coming or what? We have to go _somewhere_ if we're going to try and trace the call."

"Right," Blake said quickly, jumping off the bed and quickly gathering up her clothing to get changed. "But, what about Yang? She's still not back." She reminded her, as she ducked into the bathroom to get changed.

"If she was too irresponsible to get back here before –" She glanced at a clock, "Two in the morning, then it's her bad. Besides, you know how she is, she's probably already halfway to wherever Ruby is at right now anyways. Without us, I should add!"

"Fair point." Blake agreed, stepping out of the bathroom just as she finished adjusting her bow. "If she isn't, we'll just call her if we find the location. Right?"

Weiss nodded impatiently. "Yeah, yeah, got it, let's go."

The two moved down the hallway and out of the school in relative silence, until they got to Vale and took in the sight of barren streets, completely void of people, and Blake decided to speak up.

"….Where exactly are we going to trace the call from?"

Sucking in some air through her teeth, Weiss took a look around for herself. "That's…that's a good question."

Blake stared at Weiss incredulously. "Seriously?"

She stiffened. "In my defense, it didn't occur to you to stop me and ask until just now!" She exclaimed, then hugged herself nervously. Obviously Weiss was a little on edge.

"Just, forget it. We're here now, so we're going to trace that phone from _somewhere_." Blake said dismissively, taking a moment to think of any way to do so. "Most stores that aren't bars are closed, but bars won't have any technology advanced enough to trace a call…" She muttered, then glanced over at Weiss curiously. "Hey."

"What?" The heiress shot back, still jumpy.

"How many favors do you think you'd have to call on to get us in there, exactly?" Blake asked, her gaze fixed on a tall building not far from where they stood. Weiss followed her line of sight and sighed, pulling out her own scroll.

"Winter is gonna be _pissed._"

Blake raised an eyebrow, but Weiss never elaborated, having already made the call and waiting with a surprising amount of patience.

After a minute or two, it seemed someone had picked up.

"Hi." Weiss said abruptly. "Yes, I'm well aware of what time it is – no I am _not_ getting – no, no, stop, I'm not doing anything of the sort – Winter can you shut up for ten seconds?!" There was another silence on Weiss' end, and Blake was really wishing she could hear the other side of that conversation, because Weiss flinched hard before trying to continue the conversation in a softer tone.

"Okay, okay. But I need you to do something – no it is not – okay, just, can you unlock the – yes unlock that one, the one in Vale. Yes, I know it's – yes I get the point, but I _really_ need you to – please? Come _on_, this is important – no I am not calling dad! Just – okay, thank you. Good night." Weiss hung up, and relief flooded her features before she steeled herself again.

"When this is all over with, Ruby is _so_ going to owe me one." She exhaled loudly, and began to lead Blake over to the building.

The black haired girl, too busy trying to piece together the conversation she'd just overheard, said nothing but nodded slightly as she followed her teammate up the cool concrete steps and into the towering building. The interior of the place was just as modernized as she'd expected, and Blake observed it with a keen eye, thinking back to the times when she'd have studied the layout of a place like this so she could slip in and do things she'd rather not admit to, now.

Her attention was brought back to the present when Weiss snapped in her face a few times. "Earth to Blake, are you going to help me trace this scroll's signal or not?"

"Right!" She shook her head, clearing it of the cluttered thoughts. " Sorry. Guess I'm still a little tired."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "No kidding. Hold this for me and I'll try to get the signal back."

Blake checked the monitor they were using for tracing it and grimaced, seeing nothing but a flashing error screen. "This could take a while."

They sighed in unison and tried again.

**-Day one: Hour fourteen –**

**-Time remaining: 106 hours -**

Peering around the corner curiously, Neo noted that the grunt seemed to be done with his job of escorting, and Ruby was left unattended in her makeshift 'cell' – it was really just an empty room on the ship. They thought about moving her into the actual base while she was passed out, but inside an airship and then in an underground loading bay already seemed like the best hiding spot they could hope to have.

Well, it would be if she hadn't already tried spoiling it, anyways.

Neo snickered and let herself into the room containing her very own captive, who was, at the moment, groaning and holding a hand to the side of her face. The tricolored girl knelt down and unceremoniously moved Ruby's hand, investigating the damage for herself. Hm. Not too bad. But still, it wouldn't do.

Cinder had already gotten the footage she needed and written the letter she planned to send, so day two's video was prepared and waiting.

A little investment wouldn't hurt anyone.

The short girl quickly retreated from the room, remembering to lock the door behind herself, and then reentered with a small box, tossing it to Ruby – well, more like throwing it at her, but the effect was the same.

It popped open to reveal a lunch that Neo had fixed up herself: ice cream and a sandwich. Ruby raised an eyebrow at her, and looked at the food suspiciously. "What'd you do to it?"

Neo shook her head and gestured to the food.

"No? What, so you expect me to believe you didn't do _anything_ to this food?"

The tricolored girl sighed dramatically and picked up the sandwich, taking a decent sized bite out of it before dropping it back in front of Ruby, who flinched. "Okay, got it. Jeez." The younger girl ate cautiously, constantly glancing up at Neo like she expected her to take it back without warning. It was almost endearing.

After a short while of idly watching Ruby and waiting for her to finish, Neo pushed the box out of the way and handed her a glass of water. Complete with some sleeping pills, though that fact was unknown to the captive, who eyed the other girl nervously for the umpteenth time that evening before drinking some. It didn't take more than three minutes to take effect.

Not to brag or anything, but she was pretty sure she had this whole caretaking thing down. Neo blew her a kiss goodnight as she left the room.

**-Day two: Hour zero –**

**-Time Remaining: 96 Hours-**

The three other members of team RWBY lay about in their dorm, taking turns between sleeping and working on figuring out where the place they were looking for might be. Weiss and Blake had recovered a little information about where the scroll had been, or at least it's range, and Yang was insistent that wherever the base was, there would be some type of flowers – corpse flowers, she'd said assuredly - and a lever.

They'd managed to work out a general area for where the place they were looking for was, but when they looked at the area through a 'borrowed' security droid's camera, they found nothing. Yang had stopped them before they shut the feed off though, pointing to a patch of red on the screen. "There."

"What, you want to look at the flowers, seriously?" Weiss asked, moving away from the monitor to look at Yang.

The blonde nodded. "Those are the ones I was telling you about, that I read about in the note? They're supposed to be our way in."

Weiss gave Yang a pointed look. "Why would they leave us a hint? That's probably a trap, or a red herring." She shook her head. "Anyways, I don't think we should read too much into that. The scroll signal is solid evidence, let's stick with that."

"If the signal you traced is such solid evidence, then explain to me why there's nothing in sight in the spot you found it." Yang shot back.

"Hey, don't even start with that, Blake and I were awake trying to find that signal while you passed out in the library with what, five botany books? All because you thought a _note_ was the most solid evidence you could get?"

"Guys, stop arguing, I'm trying to sleep…" Blake groaned from her bed, tossing a pillow at the two. She knew she wasn't actually going to get any sleep, but at least this could potentially get them to shut up for a while.

Yang sighed. "Please just check the flowers out."

Begrudgingly, Weiss zoomed in on the flowers, then had the droid poke around them a bit, until eventually…"I _told_ you there'd be a lever!" The excited exclamation had come from Yang, and Blake sat up to check it out. Weiss just pretended she wasn't surprised by the discovery.

They all wasted little time in arguing about what to do with the information.

"We need to go as soon as possible!" Yang was the first to speak, and stood up quickly from the chair, but was soon followed by Weiss.

"No, we need to make a _plan."_ The heiress countered. "We can't just go in, guns blazing, and expect everything to go our way!"

"Or maybe we could tell the headmaster, or team CFVY, or a teacher, or you know…anyone who's actually qualified to investigate this?" Blake suggested dryly, counting the people she'd listed on her fingers as she did so.

Both of her teammates wheeled around to face her, retorts already prepared, but before either of them got the chance to say them aloud, someone knocked on the door and Blake rushed to answer it, relieved.

Professor Goodwitch stood there, arms crossed. "I'd like to start by saying that all three of you are late for my class…" The three students paled, and Glynda went on as if nothing had changed. "…and I'd like to finish by saying I've taken the liberty of getting a substitute and excusing you from classes." Yang, Blake, and Weiss all perked up.

"Thank you profe-" Glynda held up a hand, cutting Weiss off.

"Now's not the time for 'thank-you's. We're going to the office. Follow me."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Fun fact: I'm trash and I've been wanting to write Glynda in some more...so I wrote her in. Yeah. Aaaand now to answer the questions reviews!**

**Sleep Arypsure: Thanks! It's really nice of you to even stop and leave a review in the first place, so you're a great reviewer.**

**xHeliwolfx: Thank you sooo much for the advice! I tried to address most of the things you pointed out and at least try to fix them, though I'm not sure how good of a job I did. I'll try to be more consistent with writing Weiss and Blake in, and I gave them a decent-size part in this chapter as a sort of apology to basically everyone reading, cause, I did kinda ignore them in the first two chapters. :/ oops.**

**To answer rwbybomb and Guest: Thank you guys! **

**Anyways, thank you all for reading, and tell me if I messed up anywhere or you've got any comments/criticism!**


	4. Chapter 4

**-Day two: Hour zero –**

**-Time Remaining: 96 Hours-**

"Why are we going to the office?" Blake asked curiously, as the group walked towards the place it felt team RWBY was getting a bit _too_ familiar with visiting.

"To receive the mission details, naturally." Glynda replied curtly, pressing the buttons on the elevator up to the office and motioning for the three students to go in before her. "If you three are hell-bent on going to get Ruby yourselves, then you'll at least need to be informed – "

Yang fist pumped, interrupting her. "So we _are_ going!" She declared, settling into an eager-looking pose. Weiss rolled her eyes.

"I think that was pretty clear without your interruption."

Glynda nodded. "My sentiments exactly…" She muttered, then addressed the three of them again. "You'll need to be supervised, and of course this is still team CFVY's active mission, so don't expect to be doing a whole lot. You're only coming because you know the location now, and nothing short of a natural disaster is going to deter you three from getting there, it seems."

"How did you know we found out the location?" Blake asked, before anyone else got the chance to cut in. Did she overhear them? How long was she outside the door?

The professor shrugged. "A hunch." She said casually, then smiled a bit to herself as if pleased with something.

"A _hunch_ got you to dismiss us from class and take us on a high-priority mission?" Weiss repeated dubiously, her arms crossed. "I feel like there should've been more to it than that."

"I also bugged all of your scrolls. My apologies." The teacher admitted, though she didn't look or sound sorry even in the slightest. She mostly just looked pleased with herself. "I've worked here long enough to know which teams will be the troublemakers, so I – how do I put it? - I plan in advance."

While Yang and Blake mostly just seemed a little irritated with that information and invasion of privacy, Weiss seemed focused on the technical part of that. "Wait, you bugged our scrolls? How did you bug _my_ scroll, my dad had me install the company's security system on it and everything! That should have been at least difficult!"

Blake and Glynda scoffed at the same time, but the professor was the one to elaborate. "Miss Schnee, if I may be so bold, everyone from the White Fang to immature hackers on the other side of Remnant have made their way into that security system. It's no challenge. "

"B- wha- wait a minute, you can't be serio-" Weiss stammered, but the elevator had reached the top, interrupting her. Glynda wordlessly led the students out of the cramped space, and Blake gave Weiss a sheepish look on the way out. Weiss followed them sullenly.

"…It's not seriously that easy, right?" She whispered to Blake on the way to the desk.

"No, it is." Blake replied idly, her attention still on the two blondes in front of her awaiting Ozpin's entry. "You really need to work on getting a better security system."

Weiss groaned, but before she got the chance to voice her complaint, Ozpin came into the office, holding a piece of paper and what appeared to be another memory card. He took a sip of his coffee and sat down at the desk calmly, laying the paper down and waiting around for a few moments.

Yang moved forward to try and start the conversation, but Glynda stuck her arm out in front of her and shook her head no. Yang waited, a little reluctantly.

After a minute or so, Ozpin spoke up, seemingly having sorted out whatever he was thinking.

"Since I've no doubt you're all curious, I'll give you three the information first – just be aware that this is a strictly confidential issue." He waved off the questioning looks from the three students and picked up the paper again, waving it back and forth a little.

"These are the demands." He said bluntly, passing the paper on to Yang, since she was standing at the front. He also tossed the memory chip to Glynda, who pocketed it quietly. The girls didn't seem to notice, focused on Ozpin as he continued. "I rejected them."

Yang scrutinized the paper for a moment, trying to figure out what it said, but after a moment she shrugged helplessly. "I can't read that, it's too…messy."

Weiss snatched the paper from Yang and looked at it herself. "It's like a doctor's handwriting, but it's still readable though. What, can you not read cursive?"

The blonde shrugged again. "I didn't focus a lot on writing at Signal. Err, my teacher didn't, anyways. What's your point? What'd they ask for?"

Weiss prepared to say, but Glynda took the paper up from her hands. "To save everyone's time, I'll just go over it myself. They requested that what they referred to as the Jade Heart be given to them in return for Ruby – A Jade for a Ruby, they said, they must think they're clever," She paused to scowl at the paper, "They sound like it's already a deal, but there's no way we'd agree to this."

"Uhh….What exactly is the Jade Heart?" Yang asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, I've never heard of it either – is it just a jewel or something, or..?" Blake trailed off.

"They explained in another part of the letter that the jade was meant to refer to what I would consider the 'core' of the school – without it we would be unable to use much of the technology, including our defensive barriers . How they know it exists is strange in itself, unless they've somehow gotten into our system, but one fact will remain true no matter what they did or what they call it: Giving it away would put the whole academy in danger." Ozpin clarified, leaning over on his desk. "It's out of the question. So we're sending you and team CFVY, along with Glynda, to retrieve your leader. We can't negotiate on the deal."

Nodding, Blake turned to face Glynda. "So, will we be traveling with team CFVY?"

The professor shook her head. "No, a big group like that would be too conspicuous. We're aiming for stealth, which is why we'll be trekking to the location you girls found on foot. Team CFVY will do the same, separate from our group. We'll meet up near the location and then go forward."

"On foot?!" Weiss sounded shocked. "A trip to Mountain Glenn on foot can take up to two days!"

"Then I suggest we get moving now." Glynda replied. "Any other questions?"

There was a brief silence.

"Good, then we'll be on our way." She said decidedly, and led the girls back to the elevator.

"Good luck." Ozpin called after them idly, taking another long sip of his coffee. "They'll need it…" He muttered, before going back to focus on some other paperwork.

**-One hour later-**

**-Time remaining: 95 hours-**

"Hey, where do you think they're going?" Nora prodded Ren until he looked in the direction she was pointing: out towards the front of the school's courtyard, where Glynda and the remainder of team RWBY could be seen heading for the Emerald Forest where they'd had their initiation.

He just shrugged. "Professor Goodwitch is taking them out. It's probably just a mission." He said curtly, though he also lingered on the retreating forms of the professor and team RWBY.

Nora frowned. "But why would they go on a mission without Ruby?" She stared Ren down until he shifted a little on his feet and tried to act casual about attempting to sneak another glance towards team RWBY. She gasped.

"They must be going to find her! Ren, Ren, Ren, we gotta go too!" She tugged at his arm fruitlessly, but he wouldn't budge.

"We can't disrupt their mission."

"Oh yes we can! They always get to do all the cool break-into places stuff!" The redhead shot back, and Ren relented a little, crossing his arms and shifting back on his feet a bit.

"Fine, but we're consulting with our teammates first."

Nora gave him a wide grin. "So what I'm hearing is a…."

Ren shook his head. "What you're hearing is a maybe."

"It's a yes! Team RWBY, we're on our way!" She fist pumped.

-**Day two: Hour five –**

**-Time Remaining: 91 hours-**

Ruby sat up for what seemed to be the umpteenth time in the past few days, growling irritably. She was _really_ getting sick of waking up in weird places. But hey, at least this time she wasn't tied up, she noted dryly, heaving a sigh as she got to her feet.

The room she was in this time was small, and much more sparsely decorated than the office and the storage cabin she'd seen earlier – the only thing in it was a blanket, a stool, and what she assumed to be some sort of radio system bolted to the wall. It was big enough for her to pace a little though, so after she tried the door, she did just that, going back and forth in the small space and clinging to some small, immature hope that maybe she really _could_ pace a hole in the floor.

She could not.

After an unsuccessful half hour, she crossed her arms and sat down on the floor, though she did spare a glance at the stool before deciding it wasn't going to make much of a difference. At least now she'd be able to pick it up if she desperately needed a weapon. Which she did. Ruby decided to make a quick list of some of the details of her situation, muttering to herself.

"Ooookay, checklist...no weapon….no windows….locked door….arrgh, it's no use!" Frustrated, she ran a hand through her hair before laying down completely on the floor.

Maybe she just had to clear her mind for a minute. Or two. Or an hour.

Without meaning to, she drifted off to sleep again, only waking when something was unceremoniously dropped right onto her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and causing her to jolt awake while she was at it. Once she regained her breath, the disshelved girl shot a disbelieving look at the responsible party.

Neo waved and motioned for Ruby to stand up.

The fifteen year old scowled, and shoved the offending object off her herself. The stool clattered to the floor. "What was that for?!"

Her captor shrugged, and made a few rapid hand gestures that Ruby didn't understand. Seeing the look of confusion on her face, Neo made a point of rolling her eyes and dramatically pulling out a notepad, which she then scribbled out a response on, before shoving it in Ruby's face to read.

'_You're cute when you sleep, but really boring, too.'_

Ruby stiffened. "You were…watching me…sleep?" _Creeeeepyyyy._

The tricolored girl wiggled her eyebrows, but before Ruby got the chance to get to the far, far end of the room, she shook her head and laughed. Or it looked like she was laughing, anyways. "So you're just messing with me." Ruby said flatly. It wasn't a question.

Neo gave her a thumbs up, and wrote another note. '_Now you're getting the hang of it! Good girl.'_

Raising an eyebrow, Ruby motioned to the stool. "Okay, then what was that actually for?"

The girl shrugged, and gave Ruby another one of her infuriating grins. Looks like she'd never be getting that answer. She skulked over to the other side of the room and positioned herself up against the wall and tried to look at least vaguely uninterested. Maybe Neo would just leave.

Neo didn't seem to want to comply with those hopes, though, and tilted her head, examining Ruby for a while and making the younger girl wonder if she'd spaced out or something before abruptly grabbing Ruby's arm and ushering her towards the door.

Of course, the red-themed girl protested, pulling away from Neo and trying to get back into the room herself, but it was ultimately pointless, and she found herself being pushed toward the door yet again. This time her captor had done her the favor of writing an explanation though, however hastily it was written.

'_Come on Red, time for a fieldtrip.'_

**-Day two: Hour twelve-**

**-Time remaining: 84 hours-**

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggghhhhh-" The very vocal complaint cut through the silence of the forest at the ungodly hour of the morning it was, and for a moment it seemed even the buzzing insects paused for a moment to stare at the source. The insects, and a very thoroughly exhausted teacher, who stopped in her tracks to stare at her student.

"Miss Xiao Long, can you _please_ stop behaving like a child?"

The student in question huffed and blew a strand of hair out of her face, but resigned herself to being a little bit more professional, striding forward to walk alongside the professor, who was leading the group. "Look, I'm sorry, but shouldn't we be at least close by now? It's been hours! Should we pick up the pace?"

"And it'll be at_ least_ twelve more hours, Yang." Blake pointed out, motioning to the mountain range they were headed into. "We're barely halfway there and we haven't stopped once." Glynda hummed and nodded her confirmation to the statement.

Weiss, who was in the back and trudging forward as slowly as she could while still keeping the pace, took this time to voice her own suggestions. "Which is exactly why we _should_ stop and make camp for now, or find a spot to rest, at least…"

"No way!"

"Absolutely not!"

The two blondes in the group did a double take, surprised to be on the same page for once, before Glynda cleared her throat and addressed Weiss. "We do not have the time nor the resources to make camp right now, Miss Schnee. As Huntresses in training, you'll need to get used to long missions like this anyways – sometimes you'll be required to run on only an hour or so of sleep when the job calls for it or your teammates are out of commission."

"Jeez, is that why you're so cranky all the time?" Yang mumbled, but if Glynda heard that she chose to ignore it.

"My point is, we can't afford to dawdle. Unless someone is dying, we are going to continue, possibly until tonight too if we aren't there by that time, and then have a brief rest just before our encounter so that everyone is fully prepared. If you feel you are not fully prepared, then…." Her hand hovered over her riding crop. "Stay behind me. I won't see any of you going and getting yourselves injured." She finished.

Weiss seemed a little put out, but she steeled herself and nodded her agreement. "..You're right, we can't waste time, we don't know what they're doing over there."

Glynda seemed to hesitate before she nodded. "Quite right. We have…no idea of what they're doing."

"Well, how are we going to be sure we're going in the right direction, then? Yeah we have flashlights _now_,"She said, holding hers out, "But they've only got enough dust in them for one night – they'll burn out before tomorrow." Weiss pointed out. She wasn't trying to convince anyone to stop again, seeing how it'd gone over last time, but she felt the need to point out any holes in the plan she could find. It would be light out soon, and they might make it there before it grew dark again, but they couldn't risk looking for an entryway blind.

Blake half-raised her hand, as if volunteering. "I can keep us on track." She offered.

"Yeah!" Yang offered Blake a high-five, which was soon accepted, though with less vigor, and then threw in her own suggestion. " 'Sides, even if that doesn't do it for you, I can always do this!" To demonstrate what she meant, the blonde activated her semblance, allowing her hair to catch fire. "It's a light source _and_ it's warm! So there aren't any excuses for not going through tomorrow night. You're welcome."

"Gee, thanks," Weiss scoffed. "How kind of you to offer a service nobody was asking fo-"

"Wait, no - Nora - get back here!"

A blur of pink and white tackled Yang to the ground, and the startled group all jumped back a bit, save Yang. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou it's so _COLD_ out here when it's dark out! Who knew, right?"

Ren jogged over to the group himself, not out of breath but certainly a little bit tired. "_Nora…_" He sighed, and ran a hand through his hair as Glynda finally regained herself and stared at Nora. She looked up accusingly at Ren, who held his hands up in surrender.

"_Miss Valkyrie._" Glynda spoke harshly, each word sounding forcibly restrained, like she was trying to keep from shouting. "_What_ are you and your partner doing here?"

"Uhh." Nora looked up from Yang and smiled nervously. "Helping?" She tried weakly.

"Do you have _any_ idea of what –"

There was a rustling in the bushes, and everyone snapped to attention, the two on the ground jumping to their feet and drawing their weapons. Ren walked soundlessly over to Nora's side, but didn't raise his Storm Flowers. After a tense moment or two of waiting, Pyrrha emerged from the bushes, walking at a normal, if only slightly slower pace than normal. "I'm sorry," She apologized to the group at large, then motioned to her back with her head. "I was slowed down a bit."

Nora and Ren exchanged glances, and everyone else craned their necks to see what was on Pyrrha's back. Yang snorted, not concealing her laughter, and Blake bit her lip to stop her own. Glynda and Weiss shared a mutual expression somewhere between '_you've got to be kidding me'_ and '_I'm going to murder someone'._

There, sleeping as soundly as can be, was Jaune, presently being carried by his partner. "He was tired.." She explained lamely.

"Is that seriously the best excuse you have?" Weiss droned. Pyrrha shrugged.

"Nora and Ren saw you guys leaving and wanted to follow. Our team leader also agreed, so we followed…." She trailed off. "It was pretty straightforward, really."

Vexed, tired and with more than enough on her plate, Glynda rubbed her temples as if to ward off a migraine. "I don't have the time to discipline you right now, so just, keep up with the group." She waved the students along to stay behind her, "We will discuss this issue _later._"

**-Day two: Hour fifteen-**

**-Time remaining: 81 hours-**

Neo gave a small, contented sigh, though no noise escaped her as she did so. Things were going fairly well. Her captive still obstinately refused to do anything she was asked the first few times, but at least she would comply when Neo badgered her enough about something. A few taps to the shoulder, along with some _creatively_ worded notes, and Ruby would begrudgingly do small tasks for Neo.

It was a good step one to have her doing errands like that, and besides, it only took…one, two….four…seven...nine escape attempts! All of the doors were locked anyways, but the attempt of escape led to some…undesirable run-ins, so eventually the red themed girl got the hint and settled on anxiously following Neo around, and only occasionally risking a glance at what was going on around her in the airship.

That wasn't to say she was protected, though. Any time she slipped up or moved to the wrong spot, the grunts were freely allowed to deliver punishment. It'd earned the girl a black eye, and, hopefully, a better sense of caution. Currently, the girl in question was waiting idly for Neo to make another move, even if her attention was more intently focused on what was going on across the room with all the crates being moved about. But that was a good thing, at least, she thought it was. Focus was good, focus was necessary. Neo just wanted that focus to be put in a more useful direction, was all. Preferably, a direction that she got to choose.

Neo waved for her captive's attention and led her back to the small room that had been repurposed as the cell, flourishing a deck of playing cards once she had locked the door. Ruby shook her head petulantly and moved to the far side of the room, but the older girl could wait.

It's not like they were going anywhere.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Aaaand I'm back! Sorry it took two weeks to update, things got a bit hectic with holiday junk and family junk and the likes. I'll try to stay on time, but uh, you know...'tis the season for having your schedule royally screwed up, haha. Anyway, more about the chapter: Who doesn't love a little comic relief? My friend suggested I do something with the other characters I've already written in 'cause I can't just have them show up in one chapter and then not be relevant anymore, so, guess who made a reappearance! Team JNPR is who. I'll probably split them up from WBY and Glynda soon though because uh, more than five characters in one place at a time...well, it gets a bit hard to juggle them, I guess. And I'll get to the extra antagonists later too, or I'll try anyway. Moving on, I'll respond to you guys now.<br>**

**SleepArypsure: What _is_ Neo? It's a mystery... just kidding. You're pretty much right about token neutral, and if I had to pin down how I've been characterizing her I guess I'd say chaotic neutral. As long as something interesting is happening, she's probably pleased. Anyways, thank you! I'm glad the story is interesting!**

**xHeliwolfx: Thank you! I still really have to catch myself on stuff like what you pointed out, so I'm glad I managed okay for that chapter, and hopefully I can keep it up! I think there was some pretty significant improvement too, I just hope I can keep my writing at that level, haha.**

**Drednaught: Stockholm syndrome is always fun, and there might be undertones of it by day five, yeah, but I don't know if five days is enough time to develop it well...not that that will stop anyone *coughneocough* from trying. Anyways, thanks, I'll try to keep it that way. **

**Guest: Thanks! And, well, they'll be figured out at some point or another, that's for sure! So far they've only heard Mercury and Emerald's voices over the video though, so it might be tough to track them down for now.**

**jin0uga: Thank you! I say as I update two weeks late hahah I'm trash sorry. I will try harder to keep updates consistent. As for pairings and or the lack of pairings, well, uhh...I'm really not sure! I could definitely try to fit one in here, though I feel like anything involving Ruby might be a bust unless you're hoping for casual mention and maybe something at the end of one of the last chapters, but uh...yeah. I kinda thought about putting a pairing or two in, but I wasn't sure which one/s, so, I guess if someone wants a pairing I can put it in? Or try? **¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ****

****And that marks the end of my response thing. This is a bit long, sorry about that. Anyways, uh, thanks for reading, tell me if you've got comments/criticisms, all that other stuff! Next update should be saturday or sunday-ish, but it's finals week for me so if it's late it's probably because I'm weeping bitter, salty tears into a math textbook. ****


	5. Chapter 5

**-Day two: Hour sixteen-**

**-Time remaining: 80 hours-**

It only took a half hour before Ruby cracked, unable to satisfy her boredom with simple pacing about her cell and much too tempted to play the card game to even manage to think of any possible escapes. Reluctantly, she'd sat down and begun playing cards, only after informing Neo that she only knew how to play Speed and Go Fish. The older girl deadpanned but set up a game of Speed…and promptly beat Ruby, seven times in a row.

She was giving her a smug look, batting her pink and brown eyes in some sort of obnoxious display of arrogance. Ruby shot her a glare as she prepared to deal the cards herself this time, only half convinced her captor had cheated, but half-convinced all the same. She could do without that smug face staring her down every waking second though – Neo practically radiated some unspoken 'I told you so'.

"What? I'm only playing the stupid card game because there's nothing else to do….it doesn't mean I'm gonna agree with whatever you tell me to do!" Her voice took on a defensive tone.

Despite the glare and the accusation, Neo's grin didn't falter, and Ruby looked away, unsettled.

Best to focus back on the game. She moved to start it up again, but was interrupted by a ringing noise coming from somewhere – she turned to face the radio she'd noticed earlier. The ringing continued for a moment, and Neo huffed and stood up, pressing a button on the wall-mounted radio before heading for the door.

Ruby sighed as it was promptly shut in her face.

Well now what was she supposed to do? Nothing about the room had changed, except now she had a deck of playing cards and the pen they'd used to keep score. Not exactly anything that could help her break out of a locked room, let alone help her get past whoever was in the way.

Scratch that, there was still the stool, but…Ruby stood up and investigated it, circling the wooden object. She was absolutely not strong enough to bust the door in with it. But, maybe if she got a running start, and used her semblance, she could try?

Hesitantly, she picked up the stool, eying the door nervously. "Not a lot of room for a running start here…" She mumbled, backing up to the furthest extent she could in the cramped space. "But, it's worth a shot."

Opting to try once or twice without her semblance, she rushed at the metal door with the stool held out in front of her like a lance. She was promptly knocked flat on her butt.

"Okay, okay, didn't work, try again. Try again." She shook her head and stood up to give it another shot, this time bracing herself more for a failure. Again she was knocked back, but she managed to keep her balance this time, which was a plus.

Might as well give it a shot with her semblance now, since she didn't expect better third results. Backing up once more, she gathered up her aura and charged the door one more time…funny, she was meeting a lot less resistanc-

Her eyes widened as she became aware of the sprawled out form of one of the White Fang operatives under her cracking wooden stool and the sound of the door slamming into the wall beside it. They must've just opened it before she charged. He groaned a bit before she regained her senses and tried to make a break for it, running straight smack into an imposing figure.

"…N-nice chainsaw, s-sir…." She stammered, hearing the other guy getting up behind her.

Ruby tried to dart back into her room, but a pair of burly arms wrapped around her waist and she was promptly hoisted over the shoulders belonging to them. "Y-you know, I feel like we met on the wrong terms, here…no? Okay, we're going somewhere, that's uh…oooh boy."

She let out a pitiful whine as they left her corridor behind, and entered a room with even more of the White Fang recruits. It seemed to be a break room of some sort, and there was a bout of laughter as one grunt's hand shot up in the air. "I call first turn!" He called out, laughing. They parted a circle around the guy. The room seemed to have a mix of reactions – Ruby thought she heard a few exasperated "_Come on, guys…"_ and even one person trying to bring the noise level back down, but the majority response was in favor of the grunt currently getting everyone riled up.

'_Shit.'_ Ruby inhaled shakily as the room grew louder again and she was set on the ground.

-**Day two: Hour twenty one-**

**-Time remaining: 75 hours-**

The group was still plodding along in relative silence, Pyrrha having dumped Jaune off her back as soon as daylight came because Blake had convinced her that he "has to get up _eventually, _you know" . The black haired girl in question was currently keeping behind Yang and trying to distract herself from her exhaustion.

That's what she gets for finally getting a normal sleeping schedule. A kidapping has to go and mess it all up, and now she can barely stay up one night without sleep, let alone her record of three nights. Still, there was no way she'd quit. She decided to try and make some conversation with her partner.

"Hey, Yang?"

"You need something Blake?" The blonde brawler responded cheerfully, taking her eyes off the teacher leading their little party for a moment to glance over at her.

Blake mulled over a good topic of conversation, until she landed on some of her questions. "Well, actually, I was wondering…You seem to be in pretty good spirits now. Aren't you at least a little worried we might get there late, or something?"

"Not at all." She answered, looking over at Glynda for a second before dropping back a bit to talk to Blake a bit more privately. "We know where we're going, and we know they'll be there. It'll only be a few more hours before we can bust in, kick some ass, and have Ruby home in time for movie night." Yang said confidently, her eyes locked firmly on the mountain range they were nearing. She seemed to be spacing out a little.

"…So you really _aren't_ worried, are you?" Blake asked, head tilted. She understood Yang's line of thinking, but… she had to make sure her friend was being realistic, too. "You know, it'll probably be a pretty hard fight, Yang. It won't be that easy. We might not get her back right away."

Yang shook her head. "Believe me, it's not a question of whether or not we're gonna get there in time, or if we're gonna have a tough time fighting a few people off. It's a question of what I'm going to do to them when I've finished beating that tricolored little _devil_ until she's a stain on the floor. " The blonde's aura had flared at this point, and Blake raised her hands up slightly in surrender, taking a step back.

"Okay, I got it! I got the point." Noticing Blake's unease, Yang put her semblance out, giving her partner a sheepish grin.

"Sorry, got carried away."

Blake just nodded. "It's fine. I'll let you get back to it." She made a – hopefully not _too_ – hasty retreat, heading over to where Ren was bringing up the back and seeing Weiss move in next to Yang in her place.

The two black haired students shared a brief silence, both seeming relieved for it while it lasted. After about an hour or so of plodding along at the same general pace though, Ren seemed to have made up his mind on asking a question, and Blake couldn't say she wasn't glad, either. The silence was nice, but it had gotten stifling.

"Blake." It was quiet, not really demanding of her attention, but she responded without missing a beat.

"Mhm?"

"What would you say is the most important reason to get your leader back?" He asked, causing her to do a double take.

"That's a little out of the blue."

He shook his head. "I was just curious. You don't have to answer."

"No, it's fine." Blake tilted her head up a little as she thought, before sucking in a breath and giving the question a shot. "Well, I guess….to have all four of us back together, really." She shrugged, then went on to elaborate. "Our group doesn't work as well without her – Yang and Weiss get on each other's nerves with no moderator, Yang's filter is basically becoming nonexistent, Weiss is more high-strung than usual, and I'm sure I must be acting oddly too, even if I'm not sure how."

Ren hummed thoughtfully. "That makes sense."

"Why'd you ask, anyway?"

He shrugged. "I was just curious." He repeated his previous answer, and Blake resigned to having her question unanswered. Knowing Ren, it probably was that straightforward anyways. She decided to move on from that.

"So, what do you think? About going on this mission, I mean." She backtracked, hoping to clarify. "It seems a little impersonal for you and your team to go to all this trouble with."

"We're your friends." He said bluntly, tipping his head towards the rest of the group, who all seemed to be having idle conversations amongst themselves, like he and Blake were currently. "It's like you said. If one person is missing, there's no balance. We're a team of eight."

Blake smiled wryly. "Pretty deep for the pancake guy, aren't you?" Ren laughed.

"I just hope everything goes well so we can all get some rest soon."

"Agreed."

**-Day three: Hour one-**

**-Time remaining: 71 hours-**

Brushing past a few henchmen on her way to the medical ward, it was safe to say Neo was a little miffed. Yes, she'd granted everyone free rights to punish her captive when they saw it fit, so technically she couldn't get anyone in trouble over this, but still..

When she'd said they could deal punishment, she hadn't meant they could take an _eye_ out!

Granted, they'd said it was an accident. One guy got a bit overzealous with his daggers, she understood that much. It was still infuriating to have to deal with though.

If she could, she'd surely be grumbling to herself, but she kept a calm demeanor as she entered the room. They'd said to take the girl back to her cell, and Neo had decided to do it herself this time, lest her captive come back missing another vital body part.

There were a few yelps of protest from the fifteen year old, who was holding a hand up to her 'eyepatch', which was actually just padding and a bandage over her right eye. The older girl pulled her to her feet anyways, tugging her along a bit slower than she'd have liked, but they made it back to the room soon enough.

She'd deposited the younger girl in the center of the room, but she just sat there for a while. Neo didn't make any moves for a good two minutes, but when she took a step forward, Ruby 'hmmmphed' and wrapped her arms around her knees, curling into as tight a ball as possible.

'_I thought having a captive would be easier than this_,' Neo sighed internally, but knelt in front of the younger girl, who jerked away from her but didn't stand up. She seemed more resentful than she'd been when they were playing cards….Neo could count that as a setback towards her real plan. But a setback was only that.

Maybe she could try pulling a few favors and regaining her neutral position with the red-loving girl. Think, what could she do to get some trust back…?

Snapping her fingers, an idea came to her. '_The blonde girl is her sister. She must trust her, so all I have to do is make an illusion….she's too tired and worn out to be able to tell the difference right now, anyways. The real deal won't be for another few hours at best, but that won't matter if I can play this off right.'_

She only had one eye to trick right now anyways, so this couldn't be too difficult, right?

Racking her brain for her best memory of the blonde she'd fought twice before, Neo eventually focused her semblance enough to get a good projection going. It was definitely fragile – this would hardly take a touch to shatter, let alone a punch, but thankfully Ruby seemed to buy it. Thank remnant for medical drugs not wearing off too quickly.

"Stay 'till I fall asleep?" Ruby asked the illusion groggily. Neo froze, not having any way to make the picture respond. Before she had the time to force a nod, the girl had passed out anyways, leaving her in the clear. Neo heaved a sigh of relief and let the illusion collapse in on itself, walking over to her captive and lifting her head up to inspect it. Ruby was too deep asleep to respond with much other than a light snore.

'_She'll make such a wonderful assistant.' _

**-Day three: Hour two-**

**-Time remaining: 70 hours-**

A loud chime from Glynda's scroll put the group on alert, and the teacher sighed as she was swarmed by the students. "It's nothing. Go back to your business."

"It has to be _something_," Weiss said pointedly. "If you weren't expecting some sort of information you would have shut it off, it's protocol."

Glynda grimaced. Perhaps Weiss knew the protocol a little _too_ well. She relented. "Yes, it has to do with the mission, but it's sensitive material. Nothing you need to see, it will not affect any of our plans."

"If it's got something to do with the mission, we have to know!" Yang was understandably the first to protest, and everyone else just murmered their agreement.

"If we're cleared to potentially see something in person, it shouldn't do us any harm to just hear about it." Pyrrha reasoned. Glynda shook her head.

"I'm sorry, but it is my job as a teacher to ensure that you all remain _safe_. I don't trust you not to make any rash decisions once you have this information."

Yang eyed the scroll skeptically, like she was considering trying to take it, before considering the fact that she liked having her arms attached. "You make it sound like bad news." She said cautiously.

"This is a kidnapping, Miss Xiao Long. Any news is bad news. It's just the 'update video'." She put air quotes around the words as she said them. "We're on day three. They delivered it to your dorm's door again, so we can assume they don't know we're on our way."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Nora interjected, raising her hand like she was trying to get called on in class again. She wove it around until Glynda pointed to her, and then it all came out at once. "Iftheysentanupdatetodaywhydidntweseedaytwosupdateeither, huh?"

"Because the previous video is also a sensitive subject." She replied curtly. "Now isn't the time for arguing with the trained professional, we need to keep moving. It'll only be another hour or so before we reach the team CFVY, they're setting up a place to rest before we go in. It's only a half hour from our target from there, but if you don't hurry we might not get the chance to rest _at all_ while staying on schedule."

The students reluctantly settled in behind the teacher in hopes of getting there faster.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: A day late. Well, I tried? Sorry bout that. More on the chapter: stuff happened. I kinda bounced around more than usual this chapter - at least in terms of tone, anyways. We've got one section of casual conversation between bored, sleep deprived students (as written by a bored, sleep deprived student) and the next section someone is literally missing an eye. An occurence that was spurred on when I decided 'hey, I really like the designs in the future au (which is really awesome if you haven't seen it already)'. All in all, this chapter is mostly just interactions and exposition, but i got a tiny head start on next chapter and there'll be fight scenes in that stuff so, hooray for the fun stuff finally coming back up, i guess? Q and A powers, activate!<strong>

**Sleep Arypsure: I think you hit the nail on the head with basically all of those classifications! **

**Drednaught and jin0uga: I can't really respond without spoiling something or contradicting myself, but, I think generally speaking getting kidnapped would be kind of a traumatic experience? So even if stockholm doesn't happen there'll probably be a slight psychological impact at the very least. But Ruby's a tough nut.**

**Fourze and Guest: Yeah, you guys are right. I think it's a bit too late for pairings anyways, too. Maybe I'll try and put them in some other story, but this one won't have any 'canon' stuff.**

**That basically wraps up the AN so uh, yeah! Thank you guys for reading, tell me if it sucks or doesn't suck, all that stuff! **


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